Maybe it's just because I'm in a bigger city, but people are still building kits here. Our club has a builder's contest every year, and we always have 30 or more entries, and the rules are that the plane has to have been completed in the past year, so there's never any repeats from year to year. It is so competitive we have multiple classes - and now we have added the "modified ARF" class for people who went above and beyond with their ARF kit. From what I hear, the club across town has an even bigger builder's contest.

Actually, have only just started my first kit in a couple of years. The rest of the fleet are to my own design. Even the two kits I've built in the last two and a bit years were subjected to a fair degree of modification.

The first was a Speedy Bee, albeit from a Clancy Aviation kit that I'd had for years. The present build is Sig's Four Star 20E. It's only getting minor modifications - by my standards anyway.

Faced with a choice of slobbing on the sofa watching TV and buying ready-made models of dubious - to me, anyway - quality and spending time in my shop scratch building unique models to my design - no contest.

What many miss out on is that the igenuity that marked the hobby of aeromodelling has migrated to the foamy builders. A scan down the scratch built foamy forum will soon show that. Those guys are building multis, floatplanes, indoor capable models - you name it, it'll show up in that forum.

However, plenty of balsa favouring builders are still making high quality models of all sorts. Okay, we have a tendency to hang out in the past - go check out the vintage guys and how many 1950's and earlier rubber powered models have been built for electric RC at all sorts of 'scales'.

BARFing is all about buying something new when told to. There is no ingenuity there at all.

BARFing is all about buying something new when told to. There is no ingenuity there at all.

I gotta say, I used to believe this was a bit of an exaggeration. After following a couple different threads here for awhile, though, it looks like this is a disturbingly accurate description. New product = muuuuusssssstttt buuuuuyyyyyy iiiiiiittt....

Was wondering how long it would be before RC Group's #1 ARF-hater chimed in. Sorry Frank.

No, I have not built a kit in the last 12 months. I've been in aeromodeling since the late 90's and I've never built a kit, in fact. Most club members razz me about it but it's good-natured ribbing. We have quite a large club, but aside from a handful of kitbuilders, most have resorted to buying/constructing ARFs or buying planes from swap-shops that only require minor adjustments to be flight-ready.

That being said, we do have a few members that build from kits and/or scratch build. One of them is Mr. Top Gun Jeff Foley who of course scratch builds his planes. The other member just finished a Solution X biplane (forget who made the kit) and he's currently working on another kit as well. He showed me pics and I asked what all those funny sticks were and he told me that's what an airplane looks like underneath the covering. I said ooohhhh so THAT'S what it looks like!

**edit** I do have to admit, however, that I get an extreme amount of satisfaction from building a helicopter from a kit. I've got three under my belt and enjoyed every minute of it. It's the same satisfaction I got from assembling R/C cars from kits, back when I raced them.

Prejudice against foam.
I was called on this very forum--a fool because I chose to build the planes I flew. I would guess the individual who chose to use that particular term to define my character never held an xacto knife or repaired a crash damaged model. His rationale was there were too many ARf's on the market for anyone to waste time building a model.
Now that is prejudice in capital letters--be it for foam or balsa.

I gotta say, I used to believe this was a bit of an exaggeration. After following a couple different threads here for awhile, though, it looks like this is a disturbingly accurate description. New product = muuuuusssssstttt buuuuuyyyyyy iiiiiiittt....

I used to believe that too, but now I know it's only true if you're shopping in the bargain basement like most people. The makers of high quality ARFs are doing some amazing things... ever fly a Precision Aerobatics Addiction-X? It's an amazing airplane, and it would be hard to build from a kit, with the FiberFusion technique being so important to it. There is innovation in the ARF market, but if you look at the cheaper stuff, it's almost always a copy of something that's been around in kit form for many years. There are ARF makers making a huge impact in the 3D and pattern world - the Osiris PWNS pattern competition - you couldn't make a better plane yourself. Almost nobody has the tools to build the way they do.

Point being, if you only look at things that are mediocre, that's what you're going to see.

That is one sweet!! C. table! I have not built a kit in 25 years, but since a long absence from the hobby I found all these ARF plane "kit's". I can spend a week taking my time "building" a ARF. I am a master cabinetmaker and a shipwright with 40 years in the trade. I gave up the notion that if you don't go into the forest, cut the tree down and cut in into lumber, and then mill it yourself, your cheating, years ago. I am glad that I can now cheat!!! and NO, it's not cheating... Dave/ZZ

For me building is more than half the fun of the hobby. Back when I had regular flying partners, I think the fun was more tipped in the direction of flying itself. But, living here in Vegas and having the work schedule I do, I rarely get to fly with anyone else, so building has become my greatest joy. Look at my blog to see the planes I have built in the last two years. And there have been more too, some I don't post on there. I typically complete a plane a month when I'm in town.